Been "sitting" on these pictures for awhile now....

It will be a year, in January, that we started Tae Kwon Doe. We initially started because we were looking to find an athletic niche for one of our kids who wasn't into some of the 'typical sports'. What we found was truly so much more. It's been such a beautiful thing to have such an activity that we all do together. It is something the entire family enjoys.

It has become a "TKD family" of sorts. On a typical Tuesday we take two hours of classes and spar for an extra hour. If we don't spar, you will now find a bunch of us orange belts hanging out at Moes until they kick us out at 9p.m. On Sunday afternoons you will find us also having class and an opportunity to all meet in one big room with all the belts. Brian has many thoughts on why this is a priority above other activities -- almost a requirement in today's world. A MUST for our family.

The picture above is Marsha and I doing a pivot round kick at testing. These pictures still make me laugh. I'm so glad I can't watch myself do these moves. Surely the black belts have to occasionally hide their faces to stifle some laughter.



Marsha has become such a dear friend and I always call Tuesday nights as getting my 'Marsha fix".

I have a funny memory, of this testing night, that I pull up in my thoughts to occasionally laugh over. Marsha and I were sitting on a bench waiting for our turn to spar. We had on our full "marshmallow sparring gear" and Marsha turns to me and says: "Janet, just LOOK AT US!!! What has happened to us! Look what we are doing on a FRIDAY NIGHT"!

I remember taking out my "dripping saliva mouth guard" to say: "I KNOW!!" There is a reason why I didn't post pictures of us ladies in our sparring gear.....trust me....you don't want to see that!
Austin and Colton doing one steps. Marsha and I in the background.
These sweet girls have so much fun together!
All geared up for sparring...
Lindsey getting her orange belt from the master... you shake all of the black belts hands..

They test every month and this was the group we tested with.
Some very special relationships have formed for the kids, the moms and the dads.

I'm thankful that we found this for our family. A little nervous as we will test for our blue belt in January. The orange belt testing took 4 hours. Can't imagine what will be in January.

This past Tuesday we had one class where we did kicks for an entire hour. Most of the older students - us - do this to work our brains as well. We were asked to do a pivot round kick, spin side kick and a jump hook kick, turn and do it all again. It's been hard enough doing all the spins and the jumps and the proper kicks while hoping you won't fall flat on your behind. Let alone trying to remember what is coming next. After three hours each Tuesday night - we just keep coming back for more. I guess that says it all.